Authorizes a taxing authority to levy a millage at a rate lower than the maximum authorized rate under certain circumstances (EG SEE FISC NOTE LF RV See Note)

House Bill 570 amends Louisiana Revised Statutes Section 47:1705(B)(1) to fundamentally alter how local taxing authorities manage their maximum authorized millage rates following property reassessments. Under present law, if a taxing authority chooses to levy a millage rate below its maximum authorized rate, it permanently forfeits the ability to increase that rate to the prior year's maximum authorized rate in future years. The bill eliminates this restriction by allowing taxing authorities to continue levying lower millage rates while retaining the capacity to adjust up to the maximum authorized millage rate approved by the constitution and approved by the taxing authority until that authorized rate expires. The legislation simultaneously imposes a new limitation: any maximum millage rates that were not levied prior to the 2024 reassessment year (or the 2023 reassessment year in Orleans Parish) are permanently reduced to the adjusted maximum millage rate established for the 2026 ad valorem tax year (or 2025 in Orleans Parish). Additionally, the bill requires that if an immediate subsequent reassessment produces an increased taxable value, the adjusted maximum millage rate shall be decreased to the maximum millage rate applicable as of the 2024 reassessment year or 2023 reassessment year in Orleans Parish.

Local taxing authorities with elected governing authority memberships, such as school boards and municipal corporations, gain flexibility by no longer losing their maximum millage authority when they choose conservative tax collection levels in any given year. Conversely, taxing authorities that have not yet levied their full maximum authorized millage rates face a permanent ceiling reduction to their current adjusted rates. Taxing authorities with governing authority memberships not elected by voters face the same restructured rules but remain subject to an additional constraint limiting millage increases to no more than two and one-half percent of the prior calendar year's collections. Property taxpayers may experience different tax burdens depending on whether their taxing authority chooses to exercise its retained maximum millage authority, while the permanent reduction of unused maximum millage rates may prevent future revenue increases for authorities that conservatively estimated their revenue needs during prior assessment cycles.

The legislation operates within Louisiana's constitutional framework for ad valorem taxation, which currently requires automatic millage rate adjustments in response to reassessment-driven changes in tax base values to ensure equivalent tax collections before and after reappraisal. The present constitutional and statutory scheme authorizes taxing authorities to increase millage rates up to maximum authorized rates with a two-thirds vote of their governing body without requiring voter approval. The bill's effectiveness depends entirely on the concurrent adoption of a related constitutional amendment to Article VII, Section 23(C) of the Louisiana Constitution at the statewide election scheduled for November 3, 2026, making the statutory amendments contingent on that constitutional change. The legislation applies prospectively to all taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2027, and this effective date is conditioned upon the constitutional amendment's successful adoption and effectiveness.